Fishhooks and lures often become snagged on underwater objects such as old tree trunks, fallen trees and underwater brush during use. Since fish lures may be expensive and highly prized personal property, some being handmade one-of-a-kind items, fisherman often strongly desire to retrieve these snagged lures.
This is not an insurmountable problem if the fishhook and lure is snagged on an object located on shore, in shallow water or within an arms reach below the surface of the water. However, if the fishhook and lure are snagged in deep water, they cannot be easily retrieved by hand and it may not be possible to free the fishhook and lure by maneuvering the line. Such attempts may result in the breaking of the line which may render it impossible to find and retrieve the fishook and lure.
In view of this desire to retrive fishhooks and lures snagged in relatively deep water, devices have been developed to aid in these efforts. Such devices include an elongated pole having a tip on one end. The tip is designed to engage and maneuver the fish line to which the snagged fishhook and lure is attached, or to directly engage the lure and fishhook. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,814 to Bence (issued June 15, 1937), U.S. Pat. No. 2,344,838 to Van Sickle (issued Mar. 21, 1944), U.S. Pat. No. 2,758,406 to Childress (issued Aug. 14, 1956), U.S. Pat. No. 2,770,062 to Russell (issued Nov. 13, 1956), U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,077 to Karpes (issued Aug. 9, 1960), U.S. Pat. No, 4,395,840 to Banks (issued Aug. 2, 1983) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,467 to Choffin (issued Apr. 2, 1985). In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 2,724,207 to Miller et al. (issued Nov. 22, 1955) discloses a fishhook remover for removing a fishhook from the mouth of a caught fish.
While all of the devices disclosed in the listed patents (except for U.S. Pat. No. 2,724,807) are designed to retrieve fishhooks and lures which have become snagged, none of these devices has achieved any commercial success, apparently due to their ineffectiveness.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for a fishhook and a lure retrieving device which is effective, relatively inexpensive and easy to employ. This invention fulfills this need in the art, as well as other needs which will become apparent to those skilled in the art once given this disclosure.